Starting anew in Shanghai

So, I guess this all begins with a move to Shanghai.

Just because you’ve reached middle age doesn’t mean you can’t take on new challenges and embark on new adventures. My work offered me an opportunity to head up the strategy department for China, and I barely hesitated to accept. The post in Shanghai was alluring for many reasons. My brother has lived here since shortly before the expo in 2010, so that was both a familial draw and the potential for a bit of a soft landing in a completely foreign land. Of course China itself is such a strange and exciting place at the moment; witnessing it first hand was basically impossible to turn down. And its proximity to so many other places I’ve been longing to visit—Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, even Australia—just sealed the deal. The relocation was basically all upside.

Strike that. Turns out there is one downside: my company put me up in a hotel only just barely fit for humans. But I like to look at this as an opportunity to shake off the jet lag and get out and explore. So it was off to the Bund today. I expect that’s the first stop for pretty much every tourist in Shanghai. And with good reason. With the old, colonial buildings on your left as you venture north on the promenade and the modern skyscrapers of Pudong across the Huangpu River to your right, it’s a great introduction to this city (and country) of contradiction.